{"id":564594,"date":"2021-02-15T13:50:05","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T13:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2021\/02\/15\/simon-says-disconnect-now\/"},"modified":"2021-02-15T13:50:05","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T13:50:05","slug":"simon-says-disconnect-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2021\/02\/15\/simon-says-disconnect-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Simon says: Disconnect, now"},"content":{"rendered":"

Going on leave? Don\u2019t apologize for being out of the office<\/strong> \u2014 and don\u2019t invite people to intrude on your hard-earned day off.<\/p>\n

You need to update your autoresponder \u2014 NOW.<\/strong> Whether you\u2019re on vacation, on stress leave or just taking a personal day (say, to go visit the moroor and get that RFID sticker before 31 March so they don\u2019t fine your [redacted]), it is time to stop apologizing for not being in the office<\/strong>. We see 100s of out of office replies every day, and many of them drive us bonkers. Some tips:<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t say you have \u201climited access to your email.\u201d<\/strong> Your phone is in your pocket, so there\u2019s nothing \u201climited\u201d about your access. It\u2019s totally cool to disconnect \u2014 in fact, nights, weekends, national holidays and annual leave are *supposed* to be times when you sign off from work. Instead, simply admit that you\u2019re not checking email while you\u2019re on leave.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s nobody\u2019s business why you\u2019re \u201cOOO\u201d <\/strong>(see below), whether it\u2019s for a medical thing, annual leave or to have something removed from a place it shouldn\u2019t be. You\u2019re \u201con leave\u201d and that\u2019s all anyone needs to know.<\/p>\n

Encourage them to reach out to someone else <\/strong>\u2014 a colleague who\u2019s covering for you, perhaps. But don\u2019t doxx them: Hand out their name and email in your autoreply (with their permission in advance), but not their mobile or other contact details unless it\u2019s entirely critical or required by company policy.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t doxx yourself <\/strong>\u2014 your mobile number or desk extension have no place in your auto-reply. Anybody who needs it has got it (or can get it from you when you\u2019re not on leave).<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be so bloody formal. <\/strong>There\u2019s no need for \u201cvalued sender\u201d or anything of the like. It clangs.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t set unreasonable expectations. <\/strong>Instead of saying to \u201cexpect a delayed response\u201d (or, worse, apologizing that you may be late writing them), tell them you\u2019ll be \u201cchecking email when you\u2019re back.\u201d We don\u2019t know if they still do this, but as recently as 2014, Daimler allowed staff to set email to automatically delete while you\u2019re on leave<\/a><\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

ALSO:<\/strong><\/p>\n